Ah the memories. In the Summer of 1968, at age 21, I was "juiced" into the Riv by the infamous and enigmatic Sidney Korshak and had run of the property. Headliners that Summer were Shara Vaughan (I "hung" with her husband Preacher), Carol Channing (a clean freak) and Merv Griffin (who was a little too friendly).

The "boys" ran the joint back then, with Ed Torres as licensee, Charlie Harrison as Casino Manager, Len Pavis as F&B Manager, Dave Chuvin as Head of Security and Ray Godfrey as Procurement Manager.

Funniest damn thing happened that Summer. One afternoon, some brazen thieves pulled up in a pickup dressed in overalls. They nonchalantly went into a waiting room by hotel reception, unplugged the large "color" TV and loaded it into the truck. The security guards even held the doors open for them. A day or two later folks were asking "who were those guys?' They had gigantic balls and literally robbed the Riv!

I met my former (RIP) chipper buddies Joe (the Creeper) Pavlik and Rob (stripper) Periot during the Riveria close-out sale. They were crazy fun going into restricted areas hunting for good stuff. Heck, they even pulled-out the booth seats in the main showroom looking for chips n stuff!

As I said, so many memories.